Soooooo . . . I’m super duper excited to be trying my hand at gamification during our Passionate Kids Project unit. I’ve been digging into Michael Matera’s book “Explore Like a Pirate” and youtube channel. The guy is off the charts! I've been loving the #XPLAP community on Twitter and all their inspiration and encouragement. Give @MrMateraa follow.

​The main piece of advice about gamification that I’ve learned so far is to layer the gaming elements on top of your existing curriculum. I wasn’t sure how that would work, but once I got going, it really does. I decided to gamify our passion project unit since it would be contained inside the parameters and time frame of the unit itself. Michael suggests a storyline, characters, side quests, and more. Since this is my first shot at it, I don’t yet have all the elements in place, but enough to generate interest.

Let’s see what we’ve done so far.

As I introduced PKP, each student received a game board. (I created it using Google Drawings.) The concept of the board is that students receive stickers on the inside of the board when they complete regular classroom tasks. The outside sections are for side quests (double point value). Side quests are completely voluntary. The ultimate goal is to earn points for privileges during our student-led edcamp. Basically, the more points you have, the more options you have during edcamp such as location of your table, which session you want to present in, or likelihood of attending the sessions you’re interested in. Here’s a link to the game board. Feel free to make a copy and remix it.

According to Mr. Matera, a good gamification unit has characters. We have four characters with passions of their own. Kung Fu Panda loves tech and especially Google Blackbelt Throwdowns and Care Bear is all about relationships and showing kindness to others. Curious George has a mind full of questions and continuously seeks answers. And Waldo, well, he’s completely random. Once never knows when he will show up. (And one teacher, me, needed a character for when something completely random pops into her head.

We’re now on our third week of PKP. Students have had opportunities to earn stickers on the inside part of the board as well as side quests. An unexpected result of the required classroom tasks is that students are expected to produce work at an acceptable level. Some students had to go back and add more details and elaborate on some of their work while others produced work that was superior to what they usually do.

​The side quests have been really fun. The best piece of advice Mr. Matera gave was that not all students will participate in side quests. And, students will gravitate to quests that meet their talents and personalities. He suggested a balance of quests that are academic in nature and others that involve relationship building and empathy. With that in mind, I developed the concepts for the side quests.

We’ve had one Kung Fu Panda Blackbelt Throwdown. Once we get started with our actual collecting of evidence, writing, and creating, students will be asked to reflect on their journey. My dear friend, Jessica Ortega, has a phenomenal digi journal. Follow her @JessOrtegaEdu. For the challenge, I planted a link to a bitly that took students to an instruction page that Jessica created to make the digi journals. When students came back the next day, I asked students that were doing the challenge to meet me at our table. There were about 7 students. One student completed the task, one student started it, and the other students were interested but hadn’t started yet. I asked the student that completed the challenge to share with the group. She gave us a detailed walkthrough. (She earned her black belt sticker that day.) I let the group know that we’d come back after the weekend to see the other digi journals. On Monday, only one other student completed the challenge. She shared with the first student and me at the table. I ceremoniously gave her her sticker. My daughter works at Disneyland and we had just visited. When I was there, I bought pieces of “magic” as prizes. The two girls were able to choose a piece of magic. One girl chose happiness and the other chose generosity. I then closed the challenge. Side note . . . I’ve decided to close challenges at a certain point so that students have to strike while it’s hot.

For the Care Bear, empathy section, I’ve been giving students stickers for commenting on this PKP blog. Now, I don’t actually announce side quests. Because of the random element of gaming, students never know what will earn them a sticker. Of course, over time, they’ll discover some patterns. The stickers for blog comments came about by chance. I had posted the link on Google Classroom and a student commented. I took that as the perfect opportunity to hand out a sticker. Now that I’ve posted a couple of blogs, students are starting to see that commenting is a way to earn a sticker.

​Oh, oh!!! Shhhhhh, don’t tell. Students shared their group design for the Cardboard Challenge on a flipgrid. Students that reply with a video response will be earning a Care Bear sticker. ❤

Soooo, I felt like I was doing a pretty good job with layering the gamboard on top of our PKP unit. But, I wasn't sure what to do with the points. I reached out to the #XPLAP community for suggestions. @KimSnodgrass graciously let me pick her brain. After getting a better handle on XP, I had a plan. As part of our PKP unit, we’re participating in the Cardboard Challenge. I have an office FULL of boxes, odds and ends. We have 10 teams creating games. Each group was given an index card and asked to total up their combined points and divide by how many team members they have. (Sneaky, sneaky!!! Pulled some math into the challenge.) Teams lined up from the most points to the least. Each group was allowed to get three items from the “warehouse”. It was absolutely brilliant! The excitement was off the charts. At that moment, we had a game!!!

All I can say is, “WOW!” My class and I are loving game based learning. I call them the beta testers and I’m the game master. We’re on this journey together. Since we began, students are constantly looking around the room, logging into Google Classroom, are more active participating, producing more detailed work, and keep asking, “When are we doing PKP?”

​If you’ve been thinking about dipping your toes into gamification, I highly recommend starting with Mr. Matera’s book, following the #XPLAP hashtag, and ask your students to take the journey with you. They are gamers!!! They will help you and energize you to create engaging learning experiences for them.

I won’t be posting next week. But I’ll be back the next weekend to share our experience with Caine’s Arcade and the Cardboard Challenge.

Marilyn! I love seeing/reading all of this! And sneaky, sneaky, incorporating some hints into your blogging...

My favorite part of what you wrote was the Waldo character. I hadn't thought about creating a "random" character whose defining characteristic is that you never know where he will show up or what he will be doing! It's a perfect way to exercise teacher creativity and tie it to the game :-).

I can't wait to continue following your #PKP journey!

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Marilyn

2/25/2018 08:53:28 pm

Aubrey, we are having soooo much fun! I'm so glad you're joining my class and me. You are always on the cutting edge of education. I hope we inspire you and your colleagues.

Love you and the #SunChatBloggers tribe!
Marilyn

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Mai Valadez

2/25/2018 08:41:26 pm

Hi Mrs. McAlister I really like how you described what we are doing in class for example the cardboard challenge. I also really like how you are incorporating gaming in this as well. I can't wait to see what other challenges we will do in the future! Great job Mrs. McAlister!

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Mrs. McAlister

2/25/2018 08:51:26 pm

Thank you, Mai. Our gamification is really a team effort. We're all learning as we go. I'm so glad you're on this journey with me! #MuchLove, MM

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Jannah

2/25/2018 09:02:33 pm

I love how you put that it's like a journey and that we are "beta testers". This is absolutely a brilliant idea since these images are showing our teamwork and hard work. The Cardboard Challenge has taken our thinking beyond level. #BetterTogether

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Danica

2/25/2018 09:20:09 pm

I really love playing with the game board. This was a great idea and I think that other teachers will like it. You put a lot of hard work into it, and it paid off because we are having so much fun.#GreatJob

This sounds fascinating - you've inspired me Marilyn! Explore Like a Pirate has been in my "to read" pile for quite some time. I'm going to go dig it out now. We're a no punishment, no rewards school, so I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate gamification in without giving out prizes. Lots of reading and thinking to do!

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Marilyn

2/26/2018 06:05:27 am

Carla, definitely get the book out to read. I have to say, tye stickers for points are the main tracking system. The Disney prize came about from the trip to see our daughter. So, prizes are definitely not a motivating factor. From what I've read and through videos that I've watched, keeping track of points is part of game based learning. For our game, the ability to have more choices at out student-led edcamp is the ultimate goal. I'm trying to get creative on how to use XP while leading up to edcamp. Thanks for reading and good luck with GBL. #MuchosBesos

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April

2/28/2018 11:39:06 am

Wow! thanks for letting us see what going on inside of that brain of yours when designing the challenge

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Marilyn McAlister

2/28/2018 11:46:06 am

Thank you, April. That's exactly my intention. I'm honored to be your teacher. You are a very talented young lady. I love your passions for reading and art.

Mrs. McAlister

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Welcome to my blog. I'm an 80's girl embracing being a 21st century tech-girl with the help of my amazing sixth graders. Join us as we journey through sixth grade.